Alvarez vs. Hatton: Will Saul humiliate Matthew on 3/5?

By Boxing News - 02/20/2011 - Comments

Image: Alvarez vs. Hatton: Will Saul humiliate Matthew on 3/5?By Sean McDaniel: We may be seeing a very one-sided fight on March 5th when unbeaten puncher Saul Alvarez (35-0-1, 26 KO’s) faced the light-hitting EBU welterweight champion Matthew Hatton (41-4-2, 16 KO’s) in a fight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. You want to give the 29-year-old Hatton a chance in this fight, but it’s going to be nearly impossible for Hatton without any power to keep Alvarez on honest.

We may see a replay of Nonito Donaire vs. Fernando Montiel on March 5th with Alvarez decapitating Hatton with one of his big right hands or left hooks. In this case, Hatton needs to come up with a couple of survival tactics to keep from being splayed out on the canvas and humiliated in front of his fellow countryman in England. First of all, Hatton needs to run like crazy nonstop. He’s got to stay on the move because if he stops for a second, Alvarez is going to knock him into next year.

I don’t have a lot of faith in Hatton being able to move enough or long enough to keep from getting knocked out. Hatton isn’t exactly light on his feet. He moves kind of sluggishly, and that won’t be a good thing against a big puncher like Alvarez. Hatton needs to adopt an ostrich type fighting stance where his head is cocked low and far backwards. Picture the way Vitali fights with his head leaning back, but in Hatton’s case, he’s going to have to really lean if he wants to keep Alvarez from clocking him.

He can’t fight the way he always does because one shot from Alvarez and the fight will be over. Hatton has got to do something much drastic to protect his cranium from getting torn apart in front of all those people watching at ringside. I see crab-like defense but with Hatton’s head almost at waist level to keep from getting hit.



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